NC State Fair Auto Racing 1940s Video

From the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, here is amateur black & white film shot at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh in the 1940s. Non-text DVD.43 (copy of VT.30)

Some of the subjects included are :

* Open Wheel racing on Raleigh State Fairgrounds dirt track

* Wall of Death

* Lucky Teter Hell Drivers

* Hootchie Kootchie Girls (Don't look, Cody!)

* High Wire acts

Look how well trained and synchronized the Lucky Teeter bunch is. Today's NASCAR pit crews have nothing on how well these men orchestrated their stunts.

More Lucky Teter:

Wow, that looks like early 40s. This is when the fairs were really great - midget car and motorcycle races, real freak shows, acrobat shows, circus animal shows, burlesque and girly shows, hell drivers and wall of death... most all that has been sterilized or taken away today. I wish I could go back in time. Great find, Dave!

From State of NC Archives - a 1937 excerpt from NC State Fair manager, J.S. Dorton (as in Dorton Arena) describing 1937 Fair attractions:

SPECIAL EVENTS

WEDNESDAY ONLY OCTOBER 13
"Lucky" Teter and His Hell Drivers

Legion of the World's Greatest Daredevils

We do not think it good business to repeat any attraction,
but the public has been so lavish in their praise of "Lucky" Teter
and his Hell Drivers that we have made an exception in this
Great Attraction.

"Lucky" is not a daredevil, but a precision driver. One whose
business it is to be "Perfectly" Reckless. His driving is Per-
fection. His timing of all of his stunts is to a split second. See
him do his whirl-wind spiral roll-over, the "Head-on Crash"
(drivers remaining in cars), automobile doing a Truck Leap,
"The Race of Flaming Death," leaping a car off a ramp through
space, into and through a solid wall of fire. "Lucky" driving
his car in Reverse Spins, Triple Ski Jumps, Truck Jumps, and
dozens of other spine tingling and thrill-giving performances.

Very cool stuff ,Dave.Thanks for sharing.

that take me back to the state fair in richmond,va.

The old grandstand and track looked near identical to Richmond, didn't it Ray?